Short Speaker Bio

I have spent many years solving for automation and orchestration. I started building customer service platforms for ISPs back when people used dial-up for their online activities. I then moved on to focus on making multi-vendor networks programmable through model-driven architectures. I am now the CTO and co-founder at Avassa, spending my days obsessing over how to deliver a distributed edge control plane that developers and platform teams love.

Longer Resume

Please note that this is pretty much the same information available in my LinkedIn profile.

I am an energetic individual with extensive experience of setting up and driving the product lifecycle of industry-changing and commercially successful software.

My career is focused on building solutions that make the internet run better. Through this, I have acquired a deep understanding of software and networking technologies, product and software processes, and hands-on technology marketing.

Communicating technical and non-technical subject matters to customers and peers is one of my core passions, and I am a highly regarded public speaker.

My engineering background has provided me with a patent in network management, I have contributed to several networking standards, and I have been a distinguished member of several engineering standards bodies.

I live in Stockholm with two kids and a spouse and enjoy riding my bike to work and, in races. I am an advisor to several early-stage companies and used to be on the board of Netnod Internet Exchange i Sverige AB.

Work Experience

Avassa (2020 - Present)

I am a co-founder and CTO at Avassa. We are hard at work solving the fundamental challenges of building a robust, secure and lovable application-management system for the distributed edge cloud.

Cisco Systems (2014 - 202)

I was a Senior Director, Engineering Product Management in the Cloud Solutions and Platform Group. I arrived at Cisco through the acquisition of Tail-f Systems in 2014.

My focus was on driving the strategy and vision of the Network Service Orchestrator (NSO), a market-leading network automation product suite with 150 major brand customers worldwide and a yearly revenue contribution of 100M USD. I lead a team of 6 product managers and development community leaders, reporting to the VP of network automation and orchestration.

Main responsibilities included:

• Aligning strategy and roadmap with market needs through customers, partners, and sales teams
• Presenting product vision and strategy to customers and partners, as well as analysts and journalists
• Working closely with strategic service providers and enterprise customers
• Ensuring product fit into cisco’s company-wide portfolio and top line strategy

Tail-f Systems AB (2006 - 2014)

I was an integral part of the company leadership team since joining as the third employee in 2006 through to the acquisition by Cisco System at a 175M USD valuation in 2014. I held a variety of leadership positions throughout the history of the company.

As VP Engineering, I managed the initial engineering team (20 direct reports, reporting to CEO) through the early stages of growth from working towards a minimum viable product to a stable engineering organization working on consistent release schedules.

Management tasks included:

• Maintenance of the product release plan including development resource management, feature matching, and release-scheduling
• Driving the roadmap together with company management team based on early customer feedback and sales experiences

As the company grew in size, I assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and drove day-to-day operations of the organization on top of other responsibilities while the company transitioned from startup mode to market-fit and expansion.

As the customer base grew, I assumed the role of VP Marketing & Product Management (5 direct reports, reporting to CEO) for two product lines for the network equipment provider and service provider market respectively.

Responsibilities included:

• Drove the product life-cycle including feature planning and marketing
• Represented the company’s core values and offerings directly with customers, partners and at industry events
• Supported the CTO in planning and implementing company vision and strategy

I relocated from Stockholm to Silicon Valley in 2013 to become the North America CTO, to set up company operations and work on the strategic partnership with potential partners towards an exit. I moved back to Sweden from California in 2015.

ServiceFactory AB, December (1999 – 2006)

I co-founded ServiceFactory, a software product company providing service provider subscriber management. The core product was developed in Telia, a Swedish telco, and we spun out as a private company with support from the Telia board, and with Telia taking a minority stake. We quickly gained market share in the emerging subscriber management space and had several tier-1 operators on our customer list.

My responsibility was to drive the product lifecycle of the main product, developing and maintaining roadmaps and the initial price list. I participated in requirement specification, release timing and production of documentation. Marketing tasks included developing and maintaining the initial marketing plan, planning and overseeing the production of sales collateral, and event presence.

I left ServiceFactory as the company transitioned into focusing on Wi-Fi subscriber management and was setting up for a merger.

Telia (1997 - 1999)

I was one of the principal architects of Telia’s second-generation Internet services platform. This platform was an industry first, supporting a wide variety of access types and application services in an integrated fashion to millions of subscribers. This platform became the foundation of the ServiceFactory company.

My responsibilities also included defining and maintaining the architecture of the European and North American IP transport network for Telia. I actively participated in several international standards organizations representing the operational peering requirements for the company.

As postmaster of the telia.com domain, I was responsible for feature development and operations of a massively scalable email fabric supporting 750.000 subscribers across three countries.

Education

• Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Stockholm - Electrical Engineering (1993 – 1995). Two years of full-time studies before accepting a network engineering position at Telia.
• Thorildsplans Gymnasium, Stockholm - Upper secondary school (1990 – 1993)

Profile Picture

Higher resolution image available here